The broken Wand
by Centaurquill
Summary: The Carrow siblings and Snape have taken over Hogwarts, and what is a blood traitor's daughter and her friends to do surrounded by the corrupted and pure-blood mania that are not only their new teachers but their fellow students? How will they survive?
1. Chapter 1  The train ride to hell

Willow glared miserably at her parents as they slid from sight through the greying, vibrating glass. They looked strained and guilty as they waved at her.

Willow flopped into her seat as they completely disappeared, not knowing whether she'll even see them again.

Anissa looked at her, obviously concerned, over the top of her book, (_The untitled love story_,) Whilst Helena grappled with her cat, Nagini, as it ripped at the seat's lining.

Willow was terrified about attending Hogwarts, as it had indeed been taken over by Alecto and Amycus Carrow, rumoured death eaters. Willow's parents were in a tight situation. By not sending their child to Hogwarts, it would seem that they would not approve of the new regime going on there, and perhaps they would receive fatal attacks from magic is might activists. But if they did send Willow, she would be targeted by other students because of her rather worrying family background, and she would be at the mercy of a biased law system.

Willow's mother, Elnore Niflet, was a manager in the Department of Magical Law enforcement, trying to promote rights of centaurs. Willow's father was a free-lance journalist who wrote articles about whatever he wanted and sold them to newspapers.

But her father, Thaddeus gravestone, was a muggle- lover, a blood traitor. He had written an article all about the brotherhood that wizards and muggles should share just last week. Pure blood though Willow was, her parents were notorious for their Muggle-loving tendencies, and they were already unpopular with the magical community at large, so Willow did not know what lengths other students would go to target her.

Anissa and Helena were safe though, both of them had had perfectly mundane parents, who didn't argue with the ministry. In fact, Helena's parents were highly praising the new Ministry and their views on muggles. Anissa's parents were professors of Transfiguration at the Californian state university of Sorcery, so they were neutral about the whole muggles are good or bad dispute.

Willow was glad to get away from her naive parents, and their ignorant views on muggles, but she could not escape the reputation they had made for their family. She was doomed.

Helena looked up. "Willow, don't worry about it, I know the regime has changed, but I'm sure the students' attitudes haven't."

Willow sighed and replied, "A lot of people hated me before, but before they were kept in check by Dumbledore's way of running the school. And now some muggle-hating creeps have taken over they will be free to treat me as horribly as they want."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad..." Helena began, as Anissa placed a marker in her book and closed it.

"Helena. I do wonder whether you read the news at all sometimes." Anissa glared at her while Helena averted her eyes, "Apparently the Carrows are going to be allowed to use unforgivable curses on us for punishments, according to the Magicismight bulletin. And Pius Thicknesse is letting it all pass without even making an informed investigation!" Anissa smooshed her book into her already over-crammed bag, "Mind you, I think that the minister for magic has been -"  
"Ahem"  
The three girls looked up into the face of a tall girl with lightening-white hair streaming over her blackened eyes. Sierra.

"You lot shouldn't be talking so openly about stuff like that, you know," She said, closing the door to their compartment and sitting down next to Willow.

"Sorry but I just keep forgetting why students here are for the Carrows' regime when it could put them in psychological, physical and possibly even MORTAL DANGER?"

"Shhhhh Keep your voice down!" Hissed Sierra as a pale, pointed-face boy mooched past the compartment.

" I like how he always looks so regal," Murmured Helena, eying the place he had just been, looking dazed.

"Yeah... And his hair... it's so blond..." sighed Willow, looking equally dreamy.

"Uh... HELLO?" Anissa's sharp voice cut through the musings of the two girls like a blunt saw through chocolate, "Remember what he did to Mandy Brocklehurst? She has never been the same since. He is such a pure-blood freak as well!"

Helena and Willow immediately looked ashamed.

Sierra chipped in, "I don't know why your wasting your life staring at that vampire wannabe, when there's Blaise Zabini about" She blushed suddenly, as if realizing that she was infact speaking aloud and not just in her head.

Evil smirks appeared on everyone's faces as Anissa said "You like Zabini?"

Sierra was now the shade of beetroot, and she glanced down at her feet, which were shuffling about as if to try and escape their owner's humiliation.

"Well dream on, half-blood," Scorned Helena, desperate to turn the goal post away from the fact that she liked Malfoy.

"Aw don't be so dismissive," Willow smiled consolingly at Sierra, who looked miserable "I mean, he thought that kebab-faced bubotuber Ginny was pretty, and she was a blood traitor. And if that piece of thrown-up Cockcroach cluster is his idea of pretty, then Sierra will definitely go out with him!"

Sierra blushed with embarrassment, but looked pleased, yet an awkward silence fell among them.

Thankfully, the lunch trolley arrived. The old lady carrying it looked exhausted with the weight of the sweets and delicacies that were mounted upon the wheels.

"Oooh!" Helena's face immediately lit up, and stood up to examine the various foods that were laying before her.

"Oh, could I please have some chocolate frogs please... yes about 7? Oh and could I have a couple of boxes of Bertie Bott's every flavored beans?" Willow also stood up to make the necessary exchanges with the lady as well.

When Helena had finally chosen what she wanted (a packet of droobles and some pumpkin pasties) they sat back down. Willow opened her flavored beans and started offering them round, whilst stuffing the chocolate frogs into her bag.

"What are you doing with those, Willow?" Anissa looked suspicous.

"Well, I've realized that there's quite a bit of profit to be made from these," Willow smirked as she zipped up her bag again, "Last year I saw that someone was asking for the Circe chocolate frog card on the Ravenclaw noticeboard, and they were offering to pay 5 galleons for it!"

"And I thought Ravenclaws were smart, you can buy eight for a galleon in Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade." Helena sneered, she was in Slytherin, and felt it her duty to show that her house was the best.

"Yes but think about it. They can't choose which cards to get, so they may end up spending 50 galleons, and never finding the card they want. It's an obsession you see, collection chocolate frog cards." Willow exchanged a significant glance with Sierra.

"What?" Helena looked from one to the other.

"Well basically, a girl in our dormitory kind of... went crazy. She lost one of the cards and burnt down her bed with her wand because she lost control. Flitwick told us not to mention it to anyone... but there we are. She went to St. Mungo's so they could stabilize her psychologically, and apparently she'll be coming back this term..."

"What was her name?" Anissa asked.

"Anna Miller. She wasn't very nice. She made Sierra's owl shrink to the size of a marble because of a debate they had on who was better - the Weird Sisters or the moaning myrtles." Willow looked grim

"Yeah.. her and that Nichol Autierie always used to go round together, being total cows to everyone."

"I remember when they followed me and Willow about telling us to shut up because we thought that Crabbe was ugly, and they were saying he was cute." Helena gazed dreamily at the ceiling, obviously reminiscing about the double attack she and Willow had performed, involving the slime-rolling hex and several well-aimed warty-break-out curses. Nichol's eyelids were never the same, and she couldn't insult anyone for two and a half months because every time she tried to speak her tongue began to roll up like a frightened worm.

Just then the compartment door slid noisily open, and a tall girl with golden streaked hair stood before them. "There you are!" She shouted, glaring at them. "You're supposed to be in the prefects' compartment!"

"Sorry Amy, we forgot..." Helena looked up apologetically as she picked herself off the floor; she's fallen off her seat in surprise.

They picked up their things and trooped to the prefect's compartment, which was twice as big as the others so all the prefects could sit together. Zacharias Smith blushed strangely as Helena, Willow and Sierra rushed in, followed closely by Anissa and Amy.

They squeezed in opposite each other, waiting to endure the rants that were scheduled to come from the head boy and head girl, Draco Malfoy and Daphne GreenGrass.

Daphne swished her sheen of immaculate hair as she pronounced that each of the late comers would lose ten points, and that they would get the last choice of duty stations on the rotor. Luckily their wasn't enough time for a big speech from Daphne about lateness, as they were going to arrive in a few hours and everyone still hasn't changed into their robes.

The five of them were going to be monitoring the Great hall and the entrance to the school. (Amy had decided to sign onto the same station as them, even though she wasn't a late comer.)

Anissa muttered to Willow, who was the nearest, "Prefects have never had to monitor the entrance hall before..."

"But with this new regime, I would think that a lot of students are going to want to escape." Willow replied darkly, eying Daphne closely as she handed out the rotor lists.


	2. Chapter 2  poison at the feast

A glum atmosphere reigned among the students as they loaded themselves and their things into the horseless carriages that would carry them to Hogwarts. Willow seemed tense, and sat by the window in the carriage so she could watch Hogwarts come into view. Sierra glumly took out her portable radio, as she'd taken to listening to muggle music, and after five minutes of unsuccessful tuning, she slipped it back inside her bag. She hadn't been in the mood for music anyway. Amy was making notes in her diary, she liked to record the events of each day for future reference, for when she was planning to write her memoirs. They arrived to an almost greenish-glow emitting from the entrance hall. With hundreds of slaps of shoes against flag stone they filed into the great hall, to sit at their house tables and await the sorting.

Two gruesomely ill-proportioned people sat in thrown-like chairs at the center of the staff table, Professor Carrow and Professor Carrow. They almost seemed like body guards for the thin, dark haired man that sat smugly between them. Willow felt the woman's eyes pierce her as she tried to get to her seat as discretely as possible. They would have, no doubt, have seen the extremely controversial article her father had written.

Anissa and Amy sat opposite her, while Helena went off to sit with her fellow Slytherins. Sierra had been engaged in conversation by the tiny but superior Professor Flitwick, her head of house, and as he spoke to Sierra she looked increasingly concerned, until finally she came to sit in a vacant seat beside Willow.

"What was all that about?" Asked Amy, looking nervous.

"Well... he was warning me about the Carrows... you know, how I'm muggle-born?" She whispered the last word, like it was some rude swear word.

Willow bit her lip, her eyes looking worried. Amy reached a hand across the table and placed it on Sierra's, for it was shaking.

"It's just so unfair," Said Sierra, her voice shaking.

Willow and Anissa turned their heads to the Staff table to see Alecto Carrow looking at their huddle with particular interest.

At that point the first years were guided in, not by Hagrid, but Professor Filch. A lot of the tiny children had looks of misery upon their faces, Filch had obviously wasted no time in bombarding them with threats and insults.

The sorting passed Sierra by like a Blur. She barely lifted her head as Willow's brother, Finn, got sorted into Ravenclaw, or when Helena's cousin was sorted into Gryffindor - although she fancied she heard a loud hiss coming from the table behind her that was supposedly Helena venting her feelings.

The food materialized in front of her and Sierra begrudgingly began to eat, feeling her friends' worried gazes scrutinizing her.

Snape got gracefully to his feet and stepped onto a beautiful podium that stood in front of the staff table.

"Welcome, all of you." He drawled, and instead of feeling welcomed, Sierra, for one, felt excluded. "You are all new here, because although we are in the same setting, the story line has changed. Hogwarts has been a school of ever-lessening prestige until now..."  
His words of poison filled Willow with anger as he droned on and on, Amycus Carrow extravagantly cleaning the inside of his nose with a mauled and grotty tissue that he had extracted from his robes' pocket behind him. Looking round at her peers, she could see in the faces of many their anguish, in others befuddlement, and in some glee.

After what felt like an eternity of being tempted to stride up to the podium, grab a burning candle stick and shove it up the nostril that Professor Carrow so dearly wanted to draw to the attention of the entire school, they were dismissed, and the four Ravenclaws trudged the familiar path to Ravenclaw tower. Anissa was thankful that fifth years were given the duty of showing the first years to their common rooms, as she didn't think Sierra could stand much more tonight.

Anissa, Amy, Sierra and Willow arrived at the beautiful common room a little before anyone else, thanks to a secret short cut of Willow's. They sat down on one of the secluded, luscious window seats that looked out over the black lake and the Hogwarts' grounds. The seat was big enough for them all to sit comfortably, yet Anissa could feel an atmosphere of discomfort emitting from Sierra and Willow.

Willow led back with her head resting on the Window pane, gazing up at the intricate night-sky designs on the ceiling of the common room. She didn't look nervous or worried like she had done on the train, but peacefully in acceptance of her fate.

They had experienced the impact that fellow students could make on each other when Harry Potter was the fourth champion at Hogwarts, and that was under Dumbledore's reign. But with the new head teacher, how much worse would the students' behavior towards eachother get?

Sierra had closed her eyes, her face slightly flushed, and did not stir as students began to file in. The first years did not notice them as they walked near by to the girls' resting place, for they were probably far to exhausted from the emotional trauma that was the sorting. They were off straight to bed, even though it was Saturday evening. (School always started on the first of September, no matter what day of the week it was, which meant that they had no lessons tomorrow.)

The older students began to congregate in their friendship groups, catching up with each other and expressing adventures they'd had in the long summer break. It was quite cold by now, so most people went to sit by the fireplace, and some on the floor because there weren't enough armchairs.

Anissa went over to a table, where a discarded evening profit lay, picked it up and nonverbally levitated it and charmed it to set on fire. She twisted her wand to make the blaze go down to little more than a hearty glow and went back to her friends, directing the ball of warmth as she went.

Amy looked up delighted, she was shivering against the stone walls. Anissa muttered a spell that she had not quite mastered to perform without words, and the newspaper stopped in its tracks before the four girls, warming their faces as they stared at the crumpling inky words and moving images. Sierra had opened her eyes to watch an image of Pius Thicknesse scurrying about to try and escape the flames that were threatening to engulf him.

"I'm sorry about my mood, guys," Sierra said suddenly, "it's just a bit overwhelming right now..."

Amy put an arm round her and squeezed her shoulder.

Just then the common room door opened to reveal Alecto Carrow.

"I can't deal with listening to another speech right now..." Willow murmured and quickly slid off the seat and scurried up the spiral staircase, quickly followed by Sierra and Amy.

Anissa made to leave but Alecto had called for silence and she wouldn't be able to escape without the woman noticing, she didn't know what sort of temperament Alecto had, so she decided to stay put. She quickly flicked her wand to make the burning newspaper disappear as the students settled down, she wasn't sure whether it was allowed.

"As you know, boys and girls, Hogwarts is facing a new era. I for one am looking forward to the cleansing of the school. We all know that muggle borns are a danger to our society, so please be aware..."

Anissa couldn't be bothered to listen to another racist speech, so she pressed one of her ears against the window and listened to the howling wind that whistled through the trees of the forbidden forest.


	3. Chapter 3 Settling in

Anissa was shaken awake by a tired Willow. Sunlight sifted through the dust in the air, making tunnels of light through the air, eventually falling on the elaborate floor. Her neck was stiff, and she felt clammy and tired as she groped through the dregs of her dream into reality.

"Why the hell did you go to sleep down here?" Willow looked at her disbelievingly.

"I fell asleep listening to that Alecto Carrow woman."

"That explains it..."

"What?"

Well, I found this note next to you when I came downstairs, and being a scrape I read it, and you have detention on Monday evening at 7:00pm for being disrespectful and rebellious." Willow handed her the note

"Sleeping is being a rebel?" Anissa felt her eyes prickle, she'd never had detention before... she'd been planning to keep a clean record.

Willow seemed to guess what she was thinking. "Neek. It's one detention. You're not going to be denied employment because of such a tiny little thing."

Anissa blushed guiltily. She got up, wanting to change from yesterday's robes, but thought against it, as she didn't want to wake up the other girls in her dormitory.

"Do you want me to charm the creases out of your robes, or can you manage it?"

"I can do it." Anissa huffed. Willow was always quite pompous about anything to do with charms, as she'd got 100% (O) in her OWL exam, and Anissa had only got 78% (A).

After siphoning her robes, they crept through the oaken door that led them to a beautiful corridor that had windows on either side, looking out into the mountains that were basking gloriously in the sunrise. Willow at once whipped out a camera and started snapping images of the view.

"Ok..." Anissa was a bit taken aback by this action.

"I want to record what Hogwarts is like, and make a photo album... because soon all of this will be over. I think I'll process these photos the muggle way, as it's not like the mountains are going to move whether they have been in magic potion or just ordinary potion." Willow stood there thoughtfully, then snapped a picture of Anissa, who was caught unawares.

"OK can we just go and have breakfast now?" Anissa blinked rapidly to recover from the purple flash that had temporarily blinded her.

"It's seven twenty in the morning, breakfast hasn't started."

"What the hell why did you wake me up so early?"

"To save you from embarrassment when everyone comes down stairs to see you there lying with your mouth open and drooling." Willow smirked at Anissa, who felt defeated.

"What are we going to do now then?"

"Can we go to the owlery, I want to visit Phantom."

Phantom was Sierra's owl, but they all shared him, and he'd become part of their group in a way. Willow had become especially attached with him, and had spent her time studying for her owls sitting with him in a secluded classroom, him on his perch and her on the squishy teacher's chair, reading through her text books.

They walked up to the owlery, Anissa beginning to feel more awake, yet slightly faint with hunger, drifting past scenes of Autumn beauty that glistened through the windows, Willow pausing occasionally to take pictures.

When they arrived at the owlery, they were surprised to see it wasn't empty. Draco Malfoy stood in the middle, frozen in the act of tying a letter to his eagle owl, as if caught doing something he shouldn't. When he saw it was just a couple of sixth year Ravenclaws, his fearful look was masked by his curling lips and disregarding eyes.

He quietly and perfectly casually carried on tying up his letter and carried his owl over to the window, as Willow and Anissa began to search for the dark crow-like feathers that was Phantom. Anissa spotted him first and tried to coax him down from the rafters, but he nipped sharply at her outstretched hand and shuffled further out of reach. She gave a cry of pain and Willow immediately ran over, and charmed the wound to heal itself.

Draco Malfoy had turned round, distracted from watching his owl fly into the sunrise by the high-pitched sound.

Willow looked up nervously at the irritable Phantom, and she said to Anissa "Come in lets go, he's obviously not in the mood right now."

But Draco Malfoy had walked over to them. "You have to do it like this," He told them, holding his arm toward the Rafters, his fest clenched over his upside-down palm. Phantom immediately flew down and landed neatly on Draco's arm.

Willow smiled weakly and reached out to stroke Phantom, who arched his head in pleasure, but kept a watchful eye on Anissa.

"Thanks." Willow mumbled as Draco handed over the owl and began to walk toward the exit.

"No problem," Draco looked back and smiled then went on his way, down the stone steps.

"God you couldn't take your eyes of him, could you?"

"Oh shut up." Willow glared at Anissa then softly began crooning with Phantom in what could have been conversation.

At quarter to eight they made their way back down stairs, and sat on the warm wooden benches of the Ravenclaw table. Not many people were up so the hall was nearly empty, apart from Draco who sat alone, poring over a book, Helena and a couple of Slytherin friends and several Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

Helena looked relieved when she saw Anissa and Willow, and with a quick word to her friends she hurried up to them and sat with them at the Ravenclaw table.

Anissa lost no time in telling Helena their encounter with Draco. Helena seemed suddenly excited, she was obsessed with Malfoy.

"You guys actually had a conversation with him? Wow!"

"I think you're over reacting... I mean he's not that great... He's not exactly a celebrity or anything... quite infamous actually..." Willow thought that Anissa and Helena were making too big a deal out of it. She had only felt embarrassment for Anissa's lack of skill when they met Malfoy, nothing else.

Amy and Sierra joined them after Willow, Anissa and Helena had finished breakfast, and were just sitting chatting to each other. Sierra started eating like she'd not had anything for a week, and Amy looked bleary eyed and didn't talk to anyone as she concentrated on spooning her porridge into her mouth and not elsewhere.

Everyone was wearing robes, even though it was the weekend, because one of Snape's orders as head master were that no one is allowed to wear muggle clothes. Willow didn't like wearing robes as you had to lift them up to go up the stairs, and some people performed hexes on each other to make the back of their robes to lift up, sometimes without their owners noticing straight away. Willow had made special weights that stopped anyone from successfully hexing the back of her robes, but that didn't stop the itchy material rubbing her skin all day.

The time tables were being handed out by heads of houses. Professor Flitwick bounced along one side of the Ravenclaw table, then went along the other back up to the staff table. Willow and Amy had got their's first. Amy was drawn out of her sleepy trance by seeing that tomorrow, Monday, she was having both the Carrows. Muggle studies second period, with Alecto Carrow, and double potions after lunch with Amycus? Despite the fact that she was pure blood, she was sure that she wasn't going to get along with either of the death eater siblings.

Willow was happy, she's taken Charms, Defense against the dark arts, Herbology, Foreign Studies, History of Magic and Transfiguration. She had neither of the Carrows, but didn't care to express this to the others as they were all taking Potions and/or Muggle studies.

Sierra looked up at the staff table sullenly, she had also taken muggle studies and potions. The thought that Alecto Carrow had already taken an unnaturally fast and creepy interest in her was not a happy one.

Helena had gone back to her own table to get her timetable, her friends looked a bit put out that she's dumped them the moment Sierra, Willow, Amy and Anissa had come in, but greeted her all the same.

The four Ravenclaws went to the black lake to enjoy the last wisps of summer before Autumn properly settled in, going back to the castle only to collect some sandwiches and other foods that they could eat outside for lunch. After a pleasant afternoon they returned for tea in the great hall under the darkening sky. Zacharias Smith wandered up to their table, a good looking, tall fair haired boy, although his features were somewhat compromised by his haughty expression.

"Willow, can I er speak to you for a moment?"

Willow glanced at the others before getting up and accompanying Zacharias outside the hall.

"Wonder what that was all about?" Anissa said, suspicious.

At that point a short girl came up to them,

"Oh hey Vienna," Amy said, recognizing the girl from her Muggle studies classes,. They'd been friends, but Vienna hadn't been in school for the last five months of term, not even for her owls.

"Hey, they let me come back for NEWTS, even though I missed OWLs." Vienna's face looked joyous at this thought. Anissa thought that she was really lucky to get back in, but she supposed that perhaps Vienna had sat her exams in the summer.

"That's great," Amy said, also smiling, "Are you taking Muggle studies?"

"Yeah, although I'm not sure about this Carrow woman, according to Ernie MacMillan, she was a death eater..." Vienna had dropped the volume of her voice, as it wasn't the sort of thing you'd want to overheard saying

"We have reason to think she is too." Whispered Amy.

But tea was finishing and Vienna went off to join her fellow Hufflepuffs and everyone else went off to bed.


	4. Chapter 4  The start of term

**Based on J.K Rowling's Harry Potter books, THE BROKEN WAND**

After an interesting Herbology lesson, Willow waved them a cheery goodbye and set off to Foreign studies, caught up quickly by Zacharias Smith.

"What is going on with those two?" Anissa asked again before separating from the others, heading off to Ancient Runes with Helena.

Vienna, Sierra and Amy continued to Muggle Studies, feeling a sense of foreboding as they entered the class room, which had received a dramatic makeover. Instead of posters of cars and muggle newspaper cuttings on the walls, evil looking images had been put up, obviously from a children's book about the Witch trials, where muggles went about burning magical folk for no good reason. Alecto Carrow emerged from her office at the back of the classroom just as everyone had settled down.

"Good morning class," She weezed, "I understand how you've received a rather fragmented and biased education in learning the ways of muggles, but that is about to change." She changed her facial features into what she evidently intended to be an encouraging smile. "I have created a quiz just to see how much you know already,"

She flicked her wand and thirty rolls of parchment floated into the air, each one landing in front of a student. "You may begin."

Sierra looked down at the first question,

_Q1. What are muggles?_

_A) Pearly translucent beings that hover above the ground._

_B) Disgustingly primitive beings that possess no magical ability._

_C) People who are exactly the same as Witches and Wizards, but cannot perform magic._

Sierra could see out of the corner of her eye people looking round, unsure of what to put down. She knew that _C)_ had been put there to identify the Muggle-lovers. Torn between being true to herself and not drawing attention to the fact she was a muggle, she tapped her pen on the page, thinking. At once Alecto Carrow was at her side

"WHAT IS THAT THING IN YOUR HAND?" She erupted, people jumping in shock; Vienna toppled backwards into the table behind, making a domino effect.

"COME WITH ME!" Carrow shrieked, dragging Sierra roughly by the arm out of her chair and to the door as students righted themselves.

Sierra mentally face-palmed herself. How could she be so stupid? She actually took a biro, a muggle-made tool for writing, into a muggle-hater's lesson.

Buzzing seemed to fill her head as she was dragged down the corridors. Eventually they reached the stone gargoyles. They could talk, but they said nothing. Usually they were quite cheeky, but they obviously felt that this was not the time for banter.

"May the tainted perish" She hissed, her cheeks rippling with anger as she shook.

The upward winding staircase came spiraling into view, and Alecto Carrow shoved Sierra onto it, and they rotated slowly upward, Sierra having to listen to mutterings such as "filth" and "unworthy for existence".

Finally they neared Snape's office, and Sierra found herself standing before the smirking Snape who lolled in his gold chair that was encrusted with emeralds, glittering in Sierra's face.

After some whispered mutterings with Snape Alecto left, after pushing roughly past Sierra.

"Sierra Lewis. Is it true that you were in possession of and blatantly used in plain sight of a member of senior staff and other students - a tool of Muggle making?"

"I - what?"

"You were writing with a pen, not a quill, if I am not mistaken?" Snape's contempt for her oozed out of his words like oil through bread.

"Yes. I find writing with a pen easier than a quill... I make ink blotches and you have to keep refilling the quill - "

"You are already in our bad books by simply being muggle born, and now you're offending the wizarding culture that you have been so graciously allowed into by continuing to use muggle ways as part of your life! Lewis do you understand the sort of danger you are putting yourself in by exposing your heritage so openly?"

"Are you saying I should be ashamed of what I am?"

"No, I said you should be careful! Do you not read the news? Muggle borns are being accused of stealing people's magic, and you are making yourself vulnerable by appearing to support muggle ways of life!"

"IT WAS A PEN!" Sierra was angry, she did not care that she was speaking to her head master, not just someone she'd met at break.

But Snape did care, "HOW DARE YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME? Didn't you see how Professor Carrow reacted? Some people will do much worse. She is bound by the education decree for teachers, it's illegal to kill a student. You know what she is, and if she was free from that law she would have proceeded to such extremes."

Sierra stood shocked, staring at him. Looking beyond the fact that her teacher wanted to kill her, was the infamous professor Snape not telling her off, or punishing her, but warning her? Trying to help her?

Sierra looked confusedly at the almost concerned face of her headmaster.

"Be careful," He said simply, "Now leave my office."

Sierra did not need telling twice. She didn't go back to muggle studies, she didn't think she could face that woman. Instead, Sierra made her way to the Ravenclaw common room.

According to the old fashioned clock on the wall, there was still ten minutes left before the end of lessons. She settled herself down on an armchair by the dead hearth and waited. She could hear distant scrapings of chairs against floors as students prepared to leave their classes.

Soon enough, Willow came into the common room, looking strangely flustered and bothered.

"Oh. Hey Sierra how'd you get here so fast?"

Sierra told her what had happened, as the rest of the Ravnclaws came in noisly, getting the equpment they'll need for after break lessons.

"Sierra..." Willow groaned after Sirra had told her story, "You actually brought a pen into Carrow's lesson?"

Sierra sighed, "I'm so used to writing with one, I forgot that we're actually supposed to writeith quills..."

Willow looked sadly at Sierra. "Well I guess you learnt the hard way... Oh yeah, I'm going to have to take muggle studies, but as my timetable's full I have to take extra lessons on Thursday in the evening,"

"God luck with that.." Muttered Sierra, as Anissa bounded towards them.

"Willow! What is going on with you and Zacharias Smith?"

Willow smirked, "Well basically, don't tell Amy this, but... he has a crush on her.. and he's been following me about trying to learn more about her."

"Oh... I thought.." Anissa felt awkward. She'd thought that Zacharias and Willow had been secretly dating or something.

"Awkward..." Sierra laughed as Anna Miller and Nichol Autierie walked up to them.

"Err.. excuse me but why you being so rude about us?" Gabbled Anna, with Nichol glaring at them over her shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" Sighed Willow.

"Er well apparently you were calling us ugly and fat because your just jealous of us because we get all the boys."

Sierra giggled, thinking that the two girls were joking, but their glares told her they weren't.

"Well Willow we think you should leave Micheal Corner alone he doesn't even like you!" They then stalked off with their noses in the air.

"What the hell?" Willow obviously had no idea who Micheal Corner was.

"This is turning into such a bad day..." Sierra groaned.


	5. Chapter 5 complications

Anissa dawdled back to Ravenclaw common room. She didn't want anyone to see her red, puffy eyes, or her trembling lips. Detention with Alecto Carrow had been torture. The evil woman had "accidently" spilled pebbled manticore bones all over the muggle studies classroom floor, and she ordered Anissa to get down on her hands and knees and clear it all up - with out magic. The hard stone floor had kneaded marks into Anissa's legs, and they were numb and stiff from stray pieces of Manticore digging into her flesh.

"Lets hope that teaches you a lesson," Alecto cackled as Anissa scurried from the classroom.

She still had not calmed down when she reached the Cliodna memorial corridor, which was near to the common room. She decided to sit down on a window seat, to try and master herself before entering the common room. As she sat, half hidden by shadows, she saw two figures out in the grounds. She peered at them, they were close enough for her to see their faces, but she must be mistaken.

From the back, the girl looked like non other but Helena. The couple bent over, evidently laughing at something, Anissa couldn't hear what they were saying. She guessed the other person, a boy, to be Theodore Nott. He pulled the girl round to face him, as she was turning away from him, and Anissa's suspicions were confirmed. Helena was out in the grounds, at night, with a death eater's son. Anissa hesitated before turning her back on the scene, wondering whether she should go down and rescue Helena, but with a glance she could see that Helena would be fine.

Her grief now dulled by the shock of seeing her friend doing ... inappropriate stuff... with a boy that was an open muggle-born hater.

Anissa closed the door quietly behind her, peering round the common room for Amy and Willow, who had said they'd wait for Anissa. Sierra had gone to bed before Anissa had left to go to detention. Anissa spotted Willow on one of the sofas by the fire. She had not looked round when Anissa had come in, so she's probably fallen asleep. Anissa realized that it was not Amy who sat next to her, but Micheal Corner.

Willow's head was slumped against Micheal's shoulder, and his head was cocked slightly, so it lent against hers. Anissa sighed. what was happening to everyone?

She poked Willow gently, who stirred and opened her eyes. Willow stared bemusedly at Anissa, then after a few moments her eyes widened and sat up carefully, so as not to wake Micheal.

"It's not what it looks like," She hissed, as Anissa smirked.

"Enlighten me,"

"Basically I was reading, by the fire, and this guy..."

"Micheal"

"Yeah... Micheal came up to me and started talking to me about Quidditch, as he's Quidditch captain now, you see, and he thought I could try out for seeker. And I felt really sleepy... I must have fallen asleep or something."

"God was he _that_ boring?"

Willow glared at her. "Look he fell asleep too!"

"Yeah okay Willow, I was just teasing you." Willow had been looking slightly agitated, desperate to prove that she had only just fallen asleep with no darker intentions. "Anyway, I saw Helena..."

Anissa told Willow all about what she'd seen as she was coming back from detention. When she'd finished Willow looked irritable.

"Let's go over here, I don't want to wake _him_," Willow beckoned toward Anissa and they crept to some armchairs by the book case. "I can't believe her!" She steamed as she flopped into her seat, "That Nott kid was evil to Sierra last year, and now Helena's going out with him? She's supposed to be Sierra's friend!"

"Don't tell Sierra," Warned Anissa.

"Of course I won't!" She snapped, "Don't you think she has enough on her plate without knowing that one of her friends is fraternizing with ..." Her voice faded, Willow sat back, her head in her hands, lost for words.

* * *

Helena couldn't understand why Willow was being so cold to her at breakfast the next day, but Anissa filled her in as they walked to Divination on an alternate version of last night's events, she didn't want Helena to think she was a gossip.

Willow was separated from everyone all morning, as she had different lessons.

Helena as usual came to sit with the Rvenclaws, but the moment Willow saw Helena sitting with Anissa, Sierra and Amy she sped off to sit with Luna Lovegood, who was a good friend of hers.

In Charms Anissa felt incredibly awkward as she sat between Helena and Willow, on a table of four with Colin Creevey sitting opposite her.

Helena had had enough. "Willow you're just bitter because you realized the Zacharias didn't want to go out with you, he wanted Amy!"

Willow, who had by now successfully charmed her armadillo to change colour, while Anissa's and Helena's remained dark brown, looked up, "What the hell? I'm angry with you because the boy you're now going out with has been horrible to Sierra ever since she started coming here!"

"People change!" Shouted Helena, but she looked worried.

Professor Flitwick gave them a stern telling-off, as raised voices easily frightened armadillos, and told them that if they spoke out of context with the lesson again then they'd been in detention with him every night for the rest of the week.

Willow and Helena didn't argue again about the subject, instead they adopted rather formal ways of talking to one another, as if they had never met before.

The rest of the week followed without any more dramas other than Vienna running into the great hall with a chicken glued to her head, the work of Anna Miller. Professor McGonagall was furious with her, and had cut her off the NEWT transfiguration course. Sierra and Willow had a hard time concealing their joy as Anna screeched into her four poster's mattress.

Helena and Willow had been quick to notice how detached and concerned Draco looked these days. He often wandered around, alone, having shaken off his rock like companions, Crabbe and Goyle. He looked paper-thin, and his brow was furrowed in deep thought. That of course didn't stop him punishing the Gryffindors so many times with losing house points that the hour glass was now empty.

Sierra found it difficult to be sympathetic towards him when she was standing by the freezing entrance to the castle, a constant draft blowing down her spine. They were forbidden to cast any spells out of context with lessons, so Anissa could not whip up one of her burning balls of paper to keep them all warm.

Saturday morning dawned cloudy and dark. A gloomy atmosphere reigned over the students. The Quibbler had come bearing sad tidings of the Weasley's wedding being disrupted by death eaters, Mad-Eye Moody dying and Harry Potter going missing. The endless fog that was formed by the breeding of dementors did not help, either. Sierra strode into the great hall and plonked herself, bleary eyed next to Luna, who sat across from Willow. They had been having an animated discussion about the death eaters taking over. Willow was stopped in mid speech by an arm swooping down over her.

She started backwards, caught unawares by non other than Micheal Corner, who grinned round at her.

"Oh, hey..." She said, breathing deeply to calm herself down.

"So, Willow. Quidditch trials today. You coming?"

"Oh what? Oh yeah... okay, for er seeker yeah..."

"Yeah" Micheal stood there awkwardly for a moment, then muttered he had to go somewhere and walked off.

Luna looked at Willow interestedly, "Is he your boyfriend?"

"NO" Willow's answer was louder than she had intended, and several people looked round at them. "I mean, no he isn't..."

"If you say so," Luna opened her Quibbler and spoke no more.

Willow turned back to her porridge, looking tired.

After breakfast Willow went off to the Quidditch try-outs, leaving Sierra to go to the library to start her essay on the elixir of bliss for Amycus Carrow. She knew she had to get it perfect, she mustn't give the evil oaf any excuse to put her in detention.

Soon joined by Amy and Anissa, they set to work, finishing not only their potions essay but also their transfiguration essay also by the time Willow came in.

"I got in!" She mouthed at them. (It was forbidden to shout or make loud noises in the Hogwarts library.)

They gave her the thumbs up as she sat down with them, after getting some spare parchment, ink and a quill from a nearby store cupboard.

She muttered at her quill for about a minute, then set it up right in front of her, and to her friends' shock it dipped itself in the ink pot and started to write of its own accord.

"Isn't that cheating?" Hissed Anissa.

"No, as it basically reads your thought pattern, so it's like you're dictating a letter to it without speaking." Willow picked up_ Defensive magical theory grade 5_ from Anissa's pile of books and began to read.

Willow had completed her homework just before the others, despite their two hour head start, and they set off to the great hall for a late lunch.


End file.
